Re: [Harp-L] 100 Authentic Blues Harmonica Licks

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

Walter Horton recorded more than one tune with "Shuffle" in the name. One of them is based on a Pinetop Smith piano tune, Pinetop's Boogie - http://youtu.be/fDp9cOLxYv0Â- that was widely imitated by guitarists, pianists (who still play it) and Walter Horton.

Blues can't be narrowly defined, and even blues musicians don't alway agree on a definition. Some point to the 12-bar blues form, even though several other song forms are used in blues. Others point to the lyrical content and mood of the tune, as bluesman Johnny Shines did. Johnny as a walking encyclopedia of the music and used to ride with Robert Johnson in his younger days. Johnny contended that if the lyrics went something like "My girl's so pretty," that it wasn't blues even if it was a 12-bar blues, used blue notes, etc. If the song was a song of religious praise, again, that wasn't blues to Johnny.

In other words, definitions of blues have several possible parameters, and which ones you choose apply to are highly personal.

Several flavors of blues exist, and none invalidates or is in any way superior than the others. Two larger streams can be discerned:

==The urban, largely northern stream, that is often embedded in jazz and highly informed by systematic musical education. Sonny Rollins would be paddling in this stream.

==The stream that flows directly from the rural south, often into cities in both the South and the North, where it's changed by its environment but remains largely the result of oral tradition carried by people of rural, working backgrounds with little interaction with higher education. Walter Horton navigated this stream his entire life.

Both streams mix in the flow from several related musics. Untangling which part is hokum, or old medicine show, or gospel, or pure dance music, and so forth may have useful academic applications, but for people who actually listen to the music and go out to hear it, the distinctions are largely meaningless, especially when used to value one thing to the exclusion of another.

Winslow

Winslow Yerxa
President, SPAH, the Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica
Producer, the Spring 2014 Harmonica Collective
Author, Harmonica For Dummies, ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ Harmonica Basics For Dummies, ASIN B005KIYPFS
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ Blues Harmonica For Dummies, ISBN 978-1-1182-5269-7
Resident Expert, bluesharmonica.com
Instructor, Jazzschool for Music Study and Performance


________________________________
From: Harmonicology [Neil Ashby] <harmonicology@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: harp-l <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx> 
Sent: Friday, June 6, 2014 7:15 AM
Subject: RE: [Harp-L] 100 Authentic Blues Harmonica Licks


Actually, my next instrument will eventually be the clarinet; I cannot afford any sax at this time. That Sonny Rollins tune is actually real blues style; therefore Walter Horton's uplifting "Shuffle" would be described as something other than "blues". Any ideas?

/Neil (" http://thebuskingproject.com/busker/2025/ ") 


On â6â/â5â/â2014 at 4:58 PM, "robert" <harpbob@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>Neil Ashby wrote:
> 
>Due to the large Harp-L response (mostly polite) indicating the 
>positive aspects of "blues" style music then I will soon obtain 
>copies of Steve Cohen's books and practice a few more riffs as 
>well as the tunes appearing in those remarkable "LostHarp" videos 
>that I have recommended.
>I'm fairly sure you're having a bit of fun with us, but on the off 
>chance that you aren't, maybe rather than obtaining some books and 
>practicing a few more riffs, you might want to give a listen to a 
>blues by Sonny Rollins, "Blue 7." 
>
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59aXJ8GvMYE